Solo exhibition
Ines Varga
Fig. 1
Low Light Index
— installation view, After Hours, Rotterdam
Exhibition label
Dates
12.09.2026 – 17.01.2027
Rooms
R1 · R2 · R3
Opening
Fri 11 Sep 2026, 20:00 till late
On the wall
11 paintings, 1 sculpture, 40 drawings
Curator
Maud Ilić
Press release
Varga paints the harbour between three and five in the morning, when the cranes are lit and nobody is looking. One room has no lights at all.
Rotterdam, 4 September 2026. Varga paints the harbour between three and five in the morning, when the cranes are lit and nobody is looking. Low Light Index is her first institutional show: eleven paintings, one sculpture that hums, and forty drawings made by the light of a single bulb.
Room 1 is lit at 50 lux, as paintings require. Room 2 is not lit at all.
The show runs through the three ground-floor cold rooms of the Koelhuis, where the walls are still sixty centimetres of cork and brick. In Room 2 you are handed a torch at the door, the way the night guard is, and the wall labels find you.
Varga trained as a scene painter at the Hungarian State Opera before moving to Rotterdam in 2014. She has worked nights at the Maashaven grain silo since 2019; most of these paintings were started on shift. Low Light Index is curated by Maud Ilić and accompanied by a book from Nachtboek Press.
On the wall · selected works
Three works, three labels.
Every label in the building follows the same order: number and room, title, medium, size, and who it belongs to. A red dot means it has found a home.
Cat. 01 · R1
Vigil (Maashaven, 03:12), 2026
Oil and graphite on unprimed linen
210 × 160 cm
Private collection, Antwerp
Cat. 14 · R2
Ledger of Lights, 2024–26
40 drawings, ink and graphite on paper
21 × 15 cm each
Available as a set · €18,000
Cat. 12 · R3
Hum, 2026
Brushed aluminium, low-pressure sodium lamp, cable
182 × 40 × 40 cm
€14,000
Installation views
AI-generated demo imagery
Artists in this exhibition
Around the exhibition
Events.
Tours, talks and Late Friday sets connected to this show. Most are small; booking is through the desk.
06.11
Fri · 22:00
Slow looking by torchlight
A night guard walks twelve people through Room 2 with one torch between them. Forty minutes, very few words.
Tour · R2
€4 · 12 places
12.11
Thu · 19:30
Ines Varga in conversation with Maud Ilić
On painting in the dark, working nights at the silo, and why the cranes are never switched off.
Talk · R5
Free · book
05.12
Sat · 16:00
Low Light Index, the book
Launch of the catalogue with Nachtboek Press. Varga signs copies until the pen gives out.
Launch · R5
Free
18.12
Fri · 22:00
One work, forty minutes
We put one chair in front of Vigil. You sit, we keep time, nobody talks.
Practice · R1
€6
17.01
Sun · 19:30
Last light
The final evening of Low Light Index. At 19:55 we switch on the lights in Room 2, for the first and only time.
Closing · R1–R3
Free
Book a place: desk@afterhours.gallery · +31 10 214 0700
Next in the programme
19.09 – 20.12.2026
